96% of Bitcoin traders are retail, yet 85% of Bitcoin trading volume is institutional

Hey everyone,

Given the recent volatile times, I believe it's time to take a step back from the speculation and start educating ourselves. This post is mainly meant for beginners as I assume it is common knowledge for our crypto verterans.

Only too often do you hear people on Reddit or YouTube telling you to buy the dip and HODL. Although it can give you a sense of (fake) security when you read confirmation bias of others who are doing exactly this, you shouldn't think this way.

This following article from Chainanalysis (https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/bitcoin-market-data-exchanges-trading) dating from June 2020 shows that even more than we might have thought, professional traders move the Bitcoin market. As the title shows, the big players account for 85% of trading volume, indicating how insignificant your recent DCA purchase is or your uncle who just bought the dip. It also explains how the recent adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador did not have a major effect on Bitcoin's price in the short term. The article also mentions a lot of other statistics that are worth looking into.

TL;DR: A few institutional players move the Bitcoin market (and therefore the crypto market). You and your friends and even this entire subreddit will likely not have a major impact on the price of Bitcoin no matter how many times you buy the dip or how hard you are Hodling.